Ecstasy of Domestic Crisis
by gahlifre
Summary: One minute the Doctor and Clara are watching the supernova of star SN 1987A, and the next the Doctor finds himself in the timestream of a universe where Clara and him live the domestic life with their two children. But how did he become so domestic? And what does he really feel for Clara Oswald? He must find out before it's too late...
1. A Domestic Morning

There weren't many opportunities that a Time Lord ever found a moment peaceful and quiet enough to only focus on one singular sliver of time. Too many thoughts, sensations, and other distractions always seemed to weave their way into their consciousness, a disadvantage of an evolved, over-connected brain. It took special instances- or, in an even rarer case, extraordinary people- to truly plant a memory forever in a Time Lord mind, for the timelines of the universe to converge on a sole experience.

 _Of course, nothing of the sort was happening now_ , the Doctor mused to himself, glancing at the smile of his companion. _It's just Clara._ Currently, they were currently seated on the threshold of the TARDIS, watching the brilliant burning of star SN 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Any second now, entropy would take its physical course and cause the supernova, space exploding in a rainbow of gases and elements. Safe from the colossal detonation inside the protective shell, the Doctor hoped to show her every second of such a miraculous event.

"It's beautiful, Doctor," Clara said from next to him, unexpectedly scooting closer to him on the edge of the time machine, resting her head close to his shoulder. "Thank you for taking me here."

The man stiffened for a while. Although he was more inclined to hugs and other general displays of affection now than he had once been, this level of physical touch was still a stretch for him. Not knowing what else to do, the Doctor cleared his throat and replied, letting himself just feel the weight and warmth of her being. "Absolutely, Clara," he simply said, looking at her.

Clara met his eyes and grinned even more extensively, her eyes widening to create a shocking ratio of pupil roundness to face. "Well then, go on, don't leave me hanging," she shot back. "Tell me about these planets and these stars."

The Doctor nodded his head. Boring bits of trivia- this was territory that he could deal with. However, just as he was about to go into a detailed explanation of neutrinos, the TARDIS started to shake, softly at first, and then more violently.

"Doctor-?" Clara questioned, trying to get up on her feet. "What?"

"Clara, stay-"The Time Lord warned-

The space around them suddenly combusted into a white brightness that was blinding, and stars seemed to race around them. Horrified, the Doctor watched, amidst all the chaos of the shaking atmosphere, as Clara fell backwards into the time machine. He rushed quickly over to take her hand and pull her back up again, more into the safety of the TARDIS.

He couldn't reach her though. Something was preventing him from bending over and touching Clara, like a hidden force field. "Clara!" he yelled, panicking, desperately hitting the invisible blockade as hard as he could, before he was hardly able to take a breath- because, the Doctor realized, horrified, the oxygen of the safety of the TARDIS shell had been ripped to shreds in the pandemonium of the moment. "Clara-" He whispered, his eyes closing shut, feeling his way around the light, desperately trying to catch sight of her body again.

And then the universe faded, gently, softly out of his vision, until all was black.

* * *

Warmth enveloped him from all around. Sighing and squeezing his eyes shut against the sudden sunlight filtering into the room, the Doctor moved to pull the white linen sheets of the bed more towards him. Smiling in contentment at the most welcome softness of the covers, he snuggled in closer to the radiating heat of the body next to him, its brown hair tickling his nose.

Despite the comfortable position, the Time Lord frowned to himself, eyes still closed. This wasn't right. He shouldn't be in bed, next to this body. Hadn't he just been in space, hadn't he seen Clara Oswald hit her head on the TARDIS floor? He couldn't bring her to safety, and he couldn't take care of her. Oh, Clara…

"Clara!" the Doctor exclaimed fitfully as he shot up straight from the bedsheets and scuttled out of the bed, limbs scrambling themselves in knots as he made an attempt to survey the scene he had just left. Hesitantly, he moved over to the other side of the bed from the one he had just got off from to catch a glance of the body that had been next to his. As slowly as he could, he peeled the linen that was shielding the occupant's face and form, fully prepared for a Zygon or some other monster.

" _CLARA!?"_ The Time Lord gasped, gawking instead at the sleeping features of his companion, yet again scooting backward from the scene before him- a very peaceful, resting, clad-only-in-underwear-and-a-bra Clara Oswald. Panicking at the sight, the Doctor managed to get a good look at himself to see if he was defective too, groaning and starting to sweat at the revelation that he as well was absolutely starkers save his pants. " _CLARA?_ What's going on?" He questioned running back towards the bed and swatting her face. "Wake up!"

"Mmm, Doctor, just five more minutes, okay?" Clara replied sleepily, making an attempt to grab the covers back from his hands. "I deserve a little more sleep."

"No, Clara," the Doctor refused, dropping the linens on the ground and grabbing her shoulders. "You need to wake up _now_."

Sighing dejectedly, the Time Lord watched as Clara opened her eyes and stared at him, blinking away the sleep, lifting herself up and positioning herself on the edge of the bed. "Doctor? What's the matter?" She asked immediately, her pupils widening. "You're never like this. You look as if you've seen a ghost."

"What's the _matter_?" the Doctor spluttered. "The matter _is_ , Clara, that we were both in bed and naked. Doesn't that seem, I don't know, a little _strange_ to you?"

The Impossible Girl smirked at him. "What I would find strange is the father of my children shocked at the thought of spending the night in bed with me." She shook her head and got up from the sheets, walking over to a cabinet and starting to rummage through it for an undershirt.

The Time Lord's breathing grew hitched and he couldn't help but barely contain a shout at Clara's flippant attitude. "The father of- Clara!" He followed her to the cabinet. "What?"

"Doctor, be quiet," the woman begged, tugging at his shoulders to stop him. "You'll wake up the baby."

Eyes widening, the Doctor was about to comment on the infant child development before a wail broke out from across the room.

"See?" Clara groaned, dropping any attempt at searching for an undershirt and sprinting to the crib on the other side of the bedroom. "You woke Jonathan, and he was sleeping so nicely too."

"Jonathan?" The man asked, fearful but yet uncharacteristically joyous at the sight of his Clara lifting a small child, nine months old at the most, from underneath a mobile of stars and planets. Mesmerized, he watched for a few seconds as Clara rocked the red-faced baby in her arms, cooing at it until its screams had developed more into tiny whimpers. The Doctor decided to try questioning Clara again on what exactly was happening, but instead was interrupted by a quiet voice.

"Mum? Dad? What's going on?" the inquisitive air of an older child, with chestnut shoulder-length hair sounded. Both the Doctor and Clara turned their attentions from Jonathan to the form of a preteen girl in the doorway.

"Another one?" The Gallifreyan quipped, his eyebrows furrowing in Clara's direction. "There's another one?"

"Doctor, shh," the woman huffed, before glancing back at the girl. "Nothing's going on, Allison; your father just woke up a bit confused this morning. Go get your brother up and get ready for school, yeah?"

"I'm already up, Mummy," a noise resounded as another kid, a boy six years old or so with a mop of light brown hair, appeared near the entryway. "What were you and Daddy yelling about?"

"Nothing, Lucas, nothing. We're just trying to get ready. Go down and get breakfast along with Allison, okay? I'm sure your Dad will be down to help you two out soon, got it?"

"Yes, Mum," Lucas and Allison nodded their heads at the statement and moved away from their parents' bedrooms, marching down the stairs towards the kitchen in their pajamas.

More bewildered than ever, the Doctor swiveled around to his companion, who was still managing to soothe the small child in her arms, snug in his onesie and his mother's arms. "Clara, believe me, I really don't know what's going on right now. The last time I remember us being together, we were on the TARDIS, and there was some temporal disturbance-"

"Oh, well, that must explain my crazy headache right now," Clara quipped. She exhaled. 'Really, Doctor, the joking isn't funny anymore. Please just help me this morning with how to figure this entire thing out. Please."

"Clara, I honestly don't know what's going on here. I don't," the Time Lord tried to explain, gesturing to Jonathan and the doorway where their supposed other two children had been.

The woman sighed. "I'm sure you'll come to your senses once you make the kids breakfast. Just do that for me, alright?" She lifted up the baby, his soft brown curls shining in the sunlight. "I'll take care of this one." Rolling her eyes exasperatingly at the Doctor's still confused expression, she shook her head. "Please, Doctor. Just go downstairs and pour them some cornflakes and get a banana or two. Please. We can discuss temporal anomalies and the like later."

He didn't want to- by all means, he just wanted to figure out what was happening, and not engage with pudding brain children in any way- but the stressed and pleading eyes of Clara Oswald finally did him in. "Of course, Clara," he muttered.

"Thank you," Clara smiled as she moved to peck the Doctor with a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you down there."

Grinning weakly, the Time Lord tried to calm his breathing as he walked out of the bedroom toward the flight of stairs in the middle of the second floor. Not only had Clara's lips dared to seek out his skin, but there were three children, a house, and a shared bed involved. The man shook his head as he cautiously meandered down the steps, until his eyes caught sight of the pictures on the left side of the wall above him and he stopped in his tracks.

 _Clara in a wedding dress, white veil and all, laughing at the bug-eyed expression of the Doctor in a suit. The pair in normal day clothes, proudly holding up the mortgage papers for their new house. Three sets of pictures involving an exhausted Clara beaming beatifically at the sight of an infant in her arm, joined by her growing family in each one. Clara holding up an "Excellence in Teaching" award in front of Coal Hill. Allison and Lucas smiling, arms around each other in a hug in front of what looked like the London Eye, and a family portrait of him, Clara, and their three kids._

Hearing the teasing of the two older children serving themselves breakfast, the Doctor felt his doom approach ever closer as he came downstairs, a ringing question vibrating through his mind, threatening to stay there until it was answered.

 _How had he ever become so domestic?_

* * *

 ** _I should not be starting another chapter fic with these two but I so impossibly needed some fluff surrounding these two after the brutal events of Face the Raven, and I'd had an idea for this for a long time. So here we are._**

 ** _As this fic progresses the rating might go up, as there will be more mature themes and scenes (wink wink), but as for now it's going to be left pretty general._**

 ** _Again, I will try to keep this as updated regularly as possible, but I'm still in school, sadly, and college apps always beckon._**

 ** _Thank you for reading and please be sure to leave kudos, bookmarks, and reviews! They are a real help to my creative process. Love you guys, and thanks tons._**


	2. A Before School Routine

"Daddy, can you help me reach the bananas?" Lucas' voice rang from the kitchen.

The Doctor froze, tearing his eyes away from the domestic scenes of the picture frames on the wall next to him, and making his way down the last step of the stairs. He could see the young boy on his tiptoes straining to reach the cabinet above a marble countertop while his older sister was able to get a box of Cheerios from the cabinet above her. Knowing that he had to respond, the man stuttered as he walked towards the children. "Yes… son. Just… one moment."

Abruptly, the Doctor stopped right by Lucas. The child immediately ceased his vain attempt to grab the fruit and smiled as his father grabbed a banana for him and shut the cabinet door. "Thanks!" He exclaimed once the Doctor handed the banana into his open palm. However, he paused at the uncharacteristic scowl on the Time Lord's face. "Are you okay, Daddy?" He asked.

"Fine, yeah, of course…," the Doctor lied, before attempting a more neutral expression. "Just… go and eat breakfast like Clara said," He eventually stated.

" _Clara_?" Allison replied, her eyebrows up and a smirk plastered across her face as she swirled milk around her cereal with a spoon. "You never call Mum that with us except for when you're about to go out on _dates_."

"Eww!" Lucas drew the vowels out after taking a bite of his banana. "That's when you get all _mushy mushy_ and kiss her on the lips. Yuck."

"Wh- Um. I mean, I guess- Your mother- Really needs you to eat," the Time Lord blushed furiously, trying to form a coherent response amidst the fact that apparently, he had kissed Clara on the lips, in front of their own children, a fair few amount of times.

"Are you _sure_ you're okay, Daddy?" The boy questioned again, concerned at his father's embarrassed complexion. "You're acting a little bit weird."

"Mum did say that he was confused this morning," Allison piped up, taking some of the last bites of her Cheerios. "And I have to agree, you are being a tad uncomfortable."

Finished with his banana, Lucas nodded in agreement and furrowed his eyebrows (bushy like his own, the Doctor noticed), and then grabbed his hand.

The man jerked back violently as a sensation he hadn't felt for ages pulsed at the edges of his mind. A pulsing glow, a young curious mind, _with memories of Scottish words and trips to the park and bananas from cabinets and laughter and curly grey hair and long brown hair with patterned dresses_ flitted through his consciousness. The feeling soon ended after the Doctor had let go of the boy, but the shock of the emotion hadn't exactly dissipated. "What in the-" The Time Lord practically yelped as anger, confusion, and a tiny sliver of a weird sort of elation rippled with the emotions twisting around his brain.

He was saved by Clara Oswald herself as she hurried down the steps with Jonathan in her arms, gesturing up the stairs. "C'mon kids, let's go get dressed, we have school today! I've laid out your uniforms on your beds. And Allison, you're riding with me on the motorbike today so please remember to get your helmet out of the laundry room!" She yelled, as the children sprung to attention and put their breakfast away, soon pushing aside their father's unusual behavior and racing up the stairs to their rooms. Sighing as she watched them go to their rooms, she smiled gratefully at seeing the Doctor. "I really do appreciate you getting them breakfast," She thanked, kissing him on the cheek. Finding that red hot heat was firing into his cheeks again, the Doctor stood almost paralyzed looking at Clara as she continued talking. "I have to go to a meeting before school so Allison and I will be taking off as soon as possible, and you need to use the car and take Lucas to school at 8:30- bring Jonathan along with you as well, the car seat should be in there. I'll have Allison out waiting for you to pick her up at 1:30 and Lucas will be taking the bus to Coal Hill so he should be there as well-"

Clara was cut off by Allison who had skidded to the bottom of the stairs, small helmet in hand. "Mum, I'm ready!"

"Well, got to go now then!" The woman beamed, softly kissing Jonathan on the forehead and rubbing his nose with hers, eliciting an excited giggle from the child. Afterwards, she started to bounce him up and down in anticipation of handing him off to the Doctor, who soon stood perplexed with a baby in his rim-rod straight arms, terrified of dropping the squirming young life in his grip. He eyed Clara as she helped fasten Allison's helmet, told the girl to grab her backpack, and then watched the two of them wave goodbye as they closed the front door behind them.

Jonathan started wriggling wildly as he saw his mother and sister leave, and panic rose in the Doctor as a little wail escaped the baby's lips. Embracing some instinct that he hadn't used in centuries, the Time Lord relaxed his arms and brought the boy to his chest, patting him on the back. Much to his relief, Jonathan soon quieted and began to suck on his thumb, scooting his head into the jacket that his father was wearing (which the Doctor thankfully had found by the baby's crib earlier).

"Ready when you are, Daddy," the Doctor heard Lucas a few seconds later as he looked over the boy who had combed his light brown mop, put on a school uniform and slung a backpack over his shoulder.

"Right, yes, of course," the man said. "We'll just, uh, go to the car." He started towards the door of the house.

"What about the keys?" Lucas wondered.

"The- keys?" the Doctor asked.

The child nodded his head. "You know, the keys, to start the car?"

"Oh, the keys, yep. Got to get those to get that internal combustion engine going," the Doctor rambled as he tried to juggle holding the baby in his arms while searching like a madman for the keys to drive to school.

"Dad?"

"Yes, Lucas, what?" The Doctor griped, still looking for the keys, glancing towards the boy. His heart sinking as he noticed the keys sitting right next to the front door on a little shelf. "Oh…"

"Are you _sure_ you're alright?" The child persisted, glancing up at the Time Lord. "You always know where the keys are. Even when Mummy forgets. And in my mind earlier, well…" He frowned. "You felt really startled, even though it's just me."

"I'm fine," the man grumped, secretly fearful though that Lucas would somehow figure out that he wasn't the version of his father that he knew, as well as being struck by the firm fact that it had been Lucas' mind (a Gallifreyan's mind) that he had touched when he held the boy's hand. "You go first," He motioned to the door as he opened it, watching Lucas skip into the rear of a bright red Honda Accord. Carefully, as he reached the car, stepping across an unnaturally green manicured yard, the Doctor lifted Jonathan out of his arms and strapped him into the grey square patterned car seat, in which the baby fell promptly asleep. Settling himself behind the driver's wheel, the Time Lord took a deep breath and put the keys into the ignition, hearing the sedan spluttering into life before he realized he had no idea where to go. Eyeing upwards as he surveyed the white brick house, _his and Clara's house_ , the Doctor sighed.

* * *

An hour later, the man collapsed exhaustedly on the blackened leather couch, holding Jonathan's tear-streaked face as the baby boy whimpered into his chest. He had had to ask Lucas as well as use his rarely-used smartphone to map a way for them to Lucas' primary school. By the time they had fought all of the traffic and gotten Lucas registered for the day, they had been fifteen minutes late and had almost missed assembly. Then, on the way back home, Jonathan had spat up what looked like formula all over himself, and the Doctor had panicked and afterwards labored to clean it off his tiny shirt as best he could with a cloth he found in a diaper bag in the Accord when he parked in the driveway. Now, although he was utterly spent and half ready to put himself into a healing coma, the Gallifreyan soon smelt a poopy aroma and groaned as he searched Jonathan's diaper and found the culprit. Congratulating himself on at least having had the foresight to bring the diaper bag in from the car into the living room, the Doctor laid down a purple blanket coated with orange five-pointed stars and slipped the dirty diaper from the boy's bottom, placing it in a trashcan conveniently located by the couch, and grabbed a handful of Cottonelle wipes and worked to keep the private areas squeaky clean. Tiredly, the Doctor slipped a clean diaper around Jonathan's legs and put his t-shirt and mini-jeans back on.

He gazed proudly at the boy, happy to have resolved the mishap before not two seconds later the baby cried again and hit his father with a little hand. The Doctor sucked in a breath as, with Lucas before, an even younger brush of a mind, with a green glow, hit his own. Suddenly, a vision of a formula bottle and a rumbling tummy came to him and disappeared, Jonathan sobbing as the whole exchange occurred.

"Hungry for some milk, eh?" he grimaced as he made his way to the refrigerator in a corner of the kitchen from the living room, clutching the baby. Sticking his hand in the freezer for a white plastic bottle and rewarded for his undertaking, the Doctor went back to the couch and chuckled as Jonathan, his cries having been toned down a notch, started rummaging at his breast, picking up fistfuls of his jacket. "I don't have anything there, lad. Only Mum does," He replied, as he situated the boy in his lap, and, supporting his head, brought the bottle to the child's lips for him to suck hungrily. A minute or two on and the baby stopped, pawing away his bottle and instead closing his eyes and completely flopping over as only a worn-out child could. Smiling against the feeling that somehow this was all wrong and yet so right, the Doctor let Jonathan press into his chest to be lulled to slumber by his heartbeats as the Time Lord too fell into a completely drained sleep.

* * *

 **Yay for me finally being able to post! I hope you all are enjoying this story as much as I am, it's really great fun to write. Please let me know your thoughts through favorites, follows, and comments! These things really encourage me to keep going. Hopefully in the future I'll have chapters uploaded for both this fic and Misstep, and maybe even a long oneshot story about pregnant!Clara in Face the Raven/Hell Bent and beyond (you can see my interest area in writing I bet, lol).**

 **Again, thank you for supporting this fic! I really do appreciate it.**

 **Have a marvelous day!**


	3. Comfortable (With Things You Never Were)

In no universe had the Doctor ever expected to be holding a baby in front of his Honda Accord at Coal Hill School. However, with Jonathan in his arms and heading to pick up Allison and Lucas, the Time Lord was doing exactly that. Biting his lip in frustration, he looked around the entrance for his companion. Breathing a sigh of relief as he saw her and what looked like her two other children by the steps, the Doctor repositioned the baby in his arms so that he could partially look over his shoulder.

Clara caught a glimpse of the Gallifreyan when he was only a few feet away and waved him over. "Thank you so much for picking them up again," she said, reaching to take Jon from his grip, the baby giving an excited squeal as she nuzzled noses with him, bouncing the boy up and down. She placed a gentle hand on the Time Lord's back. "I really appreciate it."

"Not a problem," the Doctor grunted. Sure, taking care of the kids hadn't been exactly his idea of a fun morning (that would be a pancake breakfast and playing Roy Orbison songs), but there was no possible way he could've said no.

"Ah, Doctor, long time, no see!" A voice suddenly chirped. Turning to glance at the stranger, the Time Lord realized for the first time that there was a man next to Clara. "It's good to see you," the pudding brain continued.

"And who exactly are you again?" The Doctor questioned. The human man had brown curly hair, was wearing a bowtie- not unlike his last regeneration, he realized.

Clara laughed awkwardly at his remark. "Doctor, it's Adrian. Remember? My coworker? You finally put the name to the face six months ago. We worked on that? I'd hate to see your progress diminish so quickly." Another little chuckle only confirmed to the Doctor that something was up with both Clara and this bowtie man, but, glimpsing Clara's trademark "You Better Not Do What I Think You're About to Do" face, the Time Lord simply nodded instead of investigating further. He decided to not speak unless his companion let him, all the while trying to ignore her continued stare. Lucas and Allison, who had been conversing near the steps, talking about their days at school, even looked back at the adults (and the baby) suddenly keenly aware of the uncomfortable gridlock of silence.

"Well," Adrian eventually broke the tension. "I must be off. See you at parent's night tonight, Clara?"

"Yeah, of course. See you Ade," the woman replied, giving off a wide grin that was clearly strained. As soon as the teacher was out of range, she whipped her attention back to the Doctor. "What was that?" She asked. "You knew who Adrian was yesterday! But not today? Is this because of that temporal anomaly or whatever you were talking about this morning? What's going on?"

"It's nothing, Clara, I'm sorry. I just got confused. It was really stressful with the kids this morning and I guess I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed." The Doctor was stunned and dare he say, impressed at how quickly and easily that lie came out. This morning, he would have taken to the opportunity to explain the situation that he had found himself in, admitting that he wasn't the Gallifreyan that had decided to become her husband, or the father of her children. But the Doctor remembered the weight of Jonathan on his chest as they slept on the couch, and helping Lucas reach his banana. The pictures on the walls of the house, and the questioning faces of his supposed family around him in the Coal Hill schoolyard.

He couldn't break that peace. He just couldn't.

Clara sighed at his comment, shaking her head. "I told you we shouldn't have switched up sides last night." Softly smiling at the smirk that got on the Doctor's face, she handed off Jonathan back to the Doctor with a last kiss to the baby's forehead, and began to speak. "You know the drill. Get the kids home, give them a snack- definitely include applesauce. Jonathan needs a bath, and then set him down for his nap while Allison and Lucas do their homeschool projects. Discuss with them their progress afterwards, and then they can have free time for an hour before you make them dinner- I think there's some spaghetti in the drawer to the right of the sink. Make sure they have done and/or are doing their homework and have their backpacks packed for tomorrow. Hopefully, Jonathan will sleep until then and I'll be back home after parent's night ends at 7:00." The woman put her hands on her hips. "All good?"

The Time Lord saluted her. "All good, boss."

Clara nodded her head in approval. "Well, I'd best be off, then. Take good care of your dad, alright?" She cautioned, hugging Lucas and Allison, and giving one last nose nuzzle to Jonathan. "Bye!"

"Bye mum!" Allison and Lucas waved, watching Clara run towards the steps up into the main hall. Jonathan wriggled in the Doctor's grip, a gummy smile on his face as he screeched "Ahee!" with the rest of them. The Gallifreyan and the kids watched her walk into the building before the Doctor gestured the way back to the car. "Shall we go, ladies and gents?" He said, an almost-maniacal smile on his face as he tried to instill a little pep in the children's steps. That's what fathers did, right? Act cheerful and jolly and happy all the time?

No pep appeared in any of the kids' steps as they all glanced back at the Doctor like he had finally grown a second head after regeneration. Even Jonathan had an amazingly judgmental stare for a baby. Shaking his head, the Time Lord instead just pulled the keys out of the pocket of his pants, set Jonathan in his car seat, and watched Lucas sit next to the baby while Allison climbed in the front seat, congratulating himself for seemingly having his wits together. Putting the keys into the ignition, the engine sputtered to life and the man put his foot on the petal, blasting down the street.

For the first few minutes, the car was silent other than the snippets the Doctor heard of Lucas and Allison whispering about their homeschool projects- Allison's seemed to have to do with interplanetary gravity while Lucas' dealt with Shakespeare's sonnets. Then, out of the blue, Allison piped up. "Dad, how long have I been studying interplanetary gravity in homeschool?"

"Why do you ask that?" The Time Lord, as confidently as he could, scoffed. "Of course I know how long you've been studying interplanetary gravity."

"If you do, you'd answer the question," Lucas pointed out.

"Two months," the Doctor guessed, hoping above hope that that was somehow the answer.

"Three," Allison surfaced his lie. "You know that."

"You're the one who always gets it on about our education!" Lucas joined in. "You're always going on about Gallifreyan intelligence. You advocated for having us homeschool half the day to Mum so we 'wouldn't be bored out of our skulls at some pudding brain school.'" The boy paused, clearly suspicious and agitated. "What's the matter, dad? You're not- "The child gulped. "You're not a Slitheen, are you?"

The Time Lord couldn't help but laugh at that as he blessedly pulled into the driveway of their house, ready for this conversation to end. "No son, I'm not." He put his hand up to his forehead and mimed like he was pulling down a zipper, to no effect. "See?"

"Okay, but something's off," Allison was set on not letting this die, the Doctor observed. "Lucas said you acted surprised this morning when you touched his mind. The only time you've done that before, and had a messed-up memory, is when you hit your head on the doorknob slipping on a sock." She paused, considering her comment. "You didn't do that again, did you? And you're just not telling Mum because you're worried she'll laugh at you again?"

The Doctor almost got down on his knees and prayed, he was so relieved that Allison had come up with a reasonable explanation for what had supposedly happened to him. "Yes," he admitted as guiltily as he could. "That's what happened."

"You could've just told us!" Lucas griped, opening up the car door.

"It's embarrassing," the Time Lord explained, hoping to milk this thing as much as possible. He shuffled Jonathan into his arms, the boy's own arms around his neck. "Why would I have told you?"

"Because you're our dad and you tell us everything, duh!" Lucas explained, grabbing the keys in the Doctor's pocket before the Gallifreyan could react, opening up the door and putting it back on the little shelf it was placed on. Placing their backpacks by the stairs, the children rushed to the kitchen, where Lucas was getting himself a bag of crisps and a bottle of squeezed applesauce, and Allison got the same. The Time Lord sat down Jonathan in his high chair at the table and went to go get applesauce for him too.

"You're not getting Jon applesauce, are you?" Allison questioned with a look of utter disbelief on her face. "You don't remember the debacle of September 1st, this year?"

"Should I?" The Doctor asked, puzzled. Hadn't Clara said to get applesauce for the kids for their snack?

"He squirted it all in our faces when you last gave him the packet!" Lucas shrieked in disgust between bites of crisps. He shook his head. "You have to squirt it into a bowl and feed it to him if you give him that now. Mummy said. Oh, and also with a bottle of milk." The child shook his head again and smiled. "You're so funny when you can't remember literally _anything_ , Daddy!"

Grinning with his teeth clenched, the Doctor prepared to feed Jonathan his food and yet another bottle of milk, while also steeling himself for the teasing of his intelligence that was bound to happen until Clara got home.

She better come back as soon as possible, was all he knew.

Break

"Well, Ally and Lucas are ready to go to bed with their homework done and backpacks packed at 8:15 on a school night. I've got to say, I'm pretty impressed actually- "Clara started as she entered into her and the Doctor's bedroom, before the screams of the child within caught her attention. Quickly, she rushed to the bed, where the Doctor was sitting upright, propped up with pillows behind his back while his head lolled on the headboard behind him, his red-rimmed eyes clearly visible. In his arms, hugged tightly to his chest, was Jonathan, tugging fistfuls of her husband's pajama shirt and wailing. Noticing that she was in the bed with him, the Time Lord looked into her eyes, exhausted. "I gave him four different bottles of milk to drink. He'd suck on them for a while before realizing that you weren't there and that the taste of it was yucky." The man shook his head. "I've never met a pickier baby," He stated matter-of-factly as he grabbed the said baby from the armpits.

The woman chuckled. "Allison was even worse, if you can remember," she stated as she shrugged off her trousers and took off her blouse, leaving her only in her nursing bra and pants- a fact that the Doctor deliberately tried to ignore as he handed off Jonathan to her. He also deliberately tried to ignore as Clara pulled down her bra, but couldn't help but laugh as he saw and listened to Jonathan's ridiculous sounds as he fed, snuffling and gulping messily at her breast. She smiled with him, and as they locked eyes, the Doctor desperately tried to stop that red hot heat from sneaking into his cheeks, but knew in the end that he had completely failed. Silently, the pair watched their son soon grow sleepy and curl into Clara's chest. The Doctor watched as she slowly, gently got out of bed and placed Jonathan in his crib, before she headed back to bed and, to the Time Lord's surprise, placed her head underneath his neck and locked their legs together, one of her arms stroking his chest. He had so many objections to this- they were way too close for comfort; he could sleep on the couch- millions of excuses came to mind. All he had to do was blurt them out loud.

But as Clara whispered a soft "I love you", as her breath slowed and her human warmth enveloped him in the fire of what was like a thousand suns, the Doctor, guilty to even be mildly indulging in such a pleasure as this, could suddenly not think of any reason why he should speak up and tell her to let go, even a little bit.

* * *

 **Two fics within a twelve hour period? I'm back, folks! If you want more of a reason behind my long absence or what other fics I have in store, look at Chapter 5 of Misstep. In the meanwhile, please review, kudo, and bookmark this story! Your feedback keeps me writing!**


	4. Trip Day

"WAAAHH! WAAAHHH!"

Long, pitiful wails immediately woke the Doctor from his previously dreamless sleep. Sighing, he rubbed his eyes and glanced across the room at Jonathan's crib. In a routine that he had been following for the past week, the Time Lord quickly and quietly got out of bed, glancing at the alarm clock and making sure not to wake Clara on the other side of the bed. 3:38 AM, the moment that Jonathan always woke up at night. Well, if Gallifreyans were anything, they were connected to time.

Once he was at the foot of the crib, the man took a moment to look down at his son. _Not your actual son,_ a voice in the back of his mind reminded him. _This is the son of a better, more committed man than you will ever be._ Frowning, the Doctor pushed that negative thought out of his head by choosing to focus solely on Jonathan. Clear, salty tears were visible in tracks on his cheeks, and his face was a bright shade of red from the exhaustion of his crying. Although his respiratory bypass system wouldn't be fully developed yet as he was only almost nine months old, the young boy was in fact Gallifreyan, and therefore could still use those developed lungs to wail for a long, long period of time. The baby's hands were clenched into fists, which Jonathan was banging on the mat of his crib.

"Hey, what's the matter?" The Time Lord asked as the boy's cries dissipated and he looked at his father with a trembling lip, reaching out his arms as if he wanted to be picked up and hugged. The Doctor did just that, and wasn't surprised when, as he was leaning into the touch, Jonathan reached a chubby hand to pat his cheek. The feeling of his son in his mind brushing against his consciousness was a spark of greenish light and a warm glow that the man, no matter how commonplace this gesture was becoming to him, continually cherished completely. A vision of a wet and soiled nappy soon came to his mind, and, sure enough, the Time Lord could sure start to smell that mess. "Alright, lad, let's get you changed I suppose," the Doctor replied. Searching through the baby clothes in the small dresser of drawers next to the child's crib, he pulled out another pair of footie pajamas with blue and pink stripes and walked out of the bedroom, closing the door behind him so as not to disturb Clara.

The diaper kit was still downstairs near the couch, so the Doctor decided to head down there. As quickly and as quietly as he could, he scuttled down the stairs and, holding Jonathan in a strong grip on his right hip, managed to pick up the bag with his left hand, unzipping it and taking out the purple orange-starred blanket and setting it on the ground of the living room. Gently, he laid the baby on the mat and, with an efficiency of diaper-changing he never thought he'd possess in this regeneration, cleaned the boy's bottom of the poop and urine mess. Almost instantly after the Time Lord had slipped the new, clean nappy on him, Jonathan stopped crying, merely sniffling as a faint smile broke out on his face. "Ah, Da!" the boy exclaimed, his little legs and feet cyclically wriggling, as if he were peddling a bike. "Ah!"

"All clean now, eh? I see you like that, don't you?" the man's grin matched the baby's. "You ready to go back upstairs and go to sleep?"

Jonathan's eyebrows shot up as he shook his head frantically. "Na, Da! Na!" As the Doctor tried to pick him up off the blanket, he shuffled out of his grip. "Na! So, Da, so!" The boy cried, positioning himself on his tummy and pointing his finger toward the couch. "So!"

"The sofa, got it," the Time Lord grumbled, a little upset that his night apparently wouldn't involve snuggling in the soft sheets of his bed any time soon. "Here we go!" He warned, finally successfully managing to get Jonathan from the floor, the other hand snatching the mat he had been laying on. Backing towards the sofa, the Doctor slowly sat down at the edge of the piece of furniture, his head resting on an armrest as Jon was spread on his stomach on the man's chest. Shushing as the baby giggled (it was a miracle that Clara and the other kids somehow hadn't woken up yet what with all the noise they were making), he draped the woolen cloth over Jonathan, pleased as the young boy ceased his cooing and sighed contently, closing his eyes. "Goodnight," the Doctor whispered as he too drifted to dreamland with his son.

OOO

"You never cease to amaze me," Clara's voice rang in the Gallifreyan's ears. "If you had asked me fourteen years ago if I had ever thought that the Doctor, the Destroyer of Worlds, Ka Faraq Gatri himself, would ever be a domestically inclined dad, I would have laughed at that." Batting his eyes open, the Time Lord caught a smirk on her face. "Now look at you."

The man winced inwardly at the formidable nicknames that hinted at his violent past, amazed that his Impossible Girl even felt comfortable to joke about those names. But that must truly be how intimate their relationship was. The Doctor almost gulped nervously. He hated being reminded of the fraud he was in this situation; how inept he was at caring for this family in the way the Doctor of the timestream of this universe certainly was not. However, playing along with her quip, the Time Lord smiled as brightly as he could. "I've always been one for surprises."

"Some non-family appropriate ones, I know," the woman joked, then slowly kneeled by the couch, stroking the bundle of blankets Jonathan was wrapped in. "But I'm glad you've gone more G-rated." She paused. "And I'm really happy you got him to lie down. I never have as much luck late at night, especially if he doesn't need or want a feeding."

"Just a simple diaper change," the Doctor answered. "That's all he needed. Though I'd appreciate getting this dead weight off my chest right now, or I might be the one wanting an underwear change."

Clara laughed, grinning, her big brown eyes considering his own. "Your wish is my command, dear husband," she replied, prying Jonathan from his resting place on the Time Lord's stomach. Although the baby snuffled a bit, he didn't wake up, merely repositioning and snuggling into Clara's chest.

Nodding gratefully, but sensing the embarrassed tint of scarlet flushing into his cheeks, the Doctor sprinted upstairs to the bathroom as a soft chuckle from the human woman echoed up the stairs with him, trying to forget that she had called him her husband.

OOO

Once he came out of the bathroom, the Gallifreyan decided to follow with the regular school day routine that he had grown used to over the past few days. Since Allison and Lucas hadn't woken up yet, he went to their rooms, turned on the lights, and gently shook their sheet-covered bodies until that made them sit up straight in bed, awake. Rushing to his bedroom after this task, he located his drawer of clothes and pulled out some simple black pants and a white V-neck. Finally, sprinting downstairs, he joined Clara just in time to help her put bacon to cook in the frying pan. In the background, the Doctor heard the squeals of Jonathan as he was strapped into his high chair.

"Yes, bacon!" Lucas suddenly shouted minutes later, running down the stairs with Allison closely behind him. The children took their seats at the kitchen island. "Thanks, mum and dad."

"Of course," Clara replied to him, kissing each of her kids in turn on the cheek as she served them the bacon around the table. "It is a special day, after all."

Allison and Lucas looked at each other inquisitively as they tried to remember what was going on, until both of their faces lit up as an epiphany occurred. "It's a Trip Day!" They exclaimed in unison. Lucas shoved a piece of bacon in his open chewing mouth, smiling, as Allison bit her lip, more inwardly containing her excitement. Even Jonathan joined in, flinging his applesauce all over the tray of his chair.

The Time Lord though, was less enthusiastic, searching his brain for any mention of today not being a regular school day. It was a Friday, after all, and though the weekend was approaching, the children would usually still have school. "Not a school day, you mean?" He asked, trying to say it in a joking manner that wouldn't reveal his confusion, although secretly goading for more information about the situation currently unfolding.

"No, Daddy! We're going to Blackpool! To visit Grandad!" Lucas answered his question.

"I can't believe I forgot, I've had an absence form filled out for ages," Allison also said.

"No school! No school!" Lucas cheered, fidgeting in his seat and fist-pumping the air as Clara chuckled, taking away his plate and putting it on top of her own in order to take the stack over to the sink to wash.

The Doctor, however, didn't feel so happy or jubilant. Instead, his throat had gone dry in realizing that he would have to keep up this pretending act in front of someone else. And Rassilon knew he didn't have a good track record in lying about something in front of Dave, Clara's dad, of all people (naked Swedish boyfriends came to mind).

He was broken out of his reverie by the sound of Clara's voice explaining something to the children. "I've packed most of the essentials, but go get anything else you need for the trip, as I'd like to leave in an hour or so."

"Yes, Mum!" Allison and Lucas responded, almost immediately standing up from their seats and stashing the dishes in the sink.

Clara chuckled as she watched them bound up the steps. "They do love Trip Days. And Blackpool Pleasure Beach," she laughed, putting the dishes that the kids had left in the sink in the dishwasher. "Do you mind perhaps getting the suitcases out of the garage and into the car? I'll pack some more of our things and get Jonathan ready in the meantime, and when we're done, hopefully Lucas and Allison will be ready to go too."

"Sure," the Doctor agreed, glad to have his attention being diverted on something other than freaking out over this out-of-the-blue event, shutting the dishwasher after she'd filled it up and about to head outside-

"Oh, wait!" Clara called just as he got to the door and was about to open it. "Do you mind driving? I know you're not the best on roads, but I'll help guide you with the directions." She frowned. "I just need to be free to feed Jonathan if he needs it, and you know how fussy he gets on car rides anyways. I'll probably end up holding him 75% of the way there."

Although the Time Lord wasn't much looking forward to spending hours in a car, his feet aching on the pedals ( _where was the TARDIS, and why weren't they using it?),_ he was at least glad that apparently, the other real domestic Doctor wasn't the best at directions in an automobile either. "Yeah, how bad can it be?" the Doctor joked as he pulled the keys from their spot on the door.

OOO

 _Turns out, really badly,_ the man thought miserably on the road four hours later.

It had taken the Oswald family more past eleven than planned to get all the luggage and persons in the car. Allison and Lucas were now arguing about what snacks they wanted to buy with the little amount of money they both had to jointly use together at the next rest stop. Jonathan had started bawling only thirty minutes into the trip and Clara had moved him onto her lap, and had also been desperately trying to keep him quiet and fed since then, even further juggling calling her father on the phone to update him of their plans and trying to give the Doctor directions at the same time. However, because she'd been so distracted in one form or another, they'd missed the appropriate exits twice and were now at least two hours behind from where they needed to be on their planned timetable. The way things were going, everyone was becoming so exhausted and emotional that it looked like they would have to stop somewhere near Leicester and eat, and maybe even stay the night. Of course, no one was happy with that prospect, but when Lucas and Jonathan both magically started to tear up at the same time, and Clara looked like she was damn near ready to pass out, the Doctor made the executive decision to wearily pull through a McDonald's drive through (like he ever thought he'd have to do that), attracting the kids' attention spans just long enough to get their orders. Although it was only around five in the evening, the Time Lord found the nearest budget motel he could find with the help of his wife's smartphone and helped Clara unload the essential clothes and toiletries they'd need for the next day to their room for the night.

After eating their Happy Meals and watching some Disney Channel show reruns, Allison and Lucas began yawning, and almost as soon as they had put their pajamas on and brushed their teeth, they had slipped underneath the covers of the bed, not even protesting the fact that they had to sleep in the same place. Jonathan was less cooperative, but when Clara was finally able to get the young boy to burp, the baby looked considerably more relaxed. With a few minutes of walking and rocking him around the room, Jon too was fast asleep in the makeshift pop-up Graco crib.

"The best, most well-intentioned things never go to plan, do they?" Clara asked him after he turned off the lights, snuggling closer to him so that the Doctor could feel the heat of her breath on his face. Although part of him assumed that she was talking about the failed plans to get to Blackpool that night, the Gallifreyan also somehow knew that she was referring to the domestic life that they supposedly shared.

"No, I suppose they never do," the Doctor whispered. He could sense Clara moving ever closer to him underneath the sheets, before she was stomach to stomach with him, her arm thrown haphazardly around his torso. The Time Lord begged Rassilon that she wouldn't sense his nervousness, and the embarrassed red-hot color that was surely leaking into his cheeks.

Suddenly, she sighed contentedly and kissed him on the forehead. Growing rigid in her grip, the Doctor was stunned, any comment he had lodged in his throat. Thankfully, Clara spoke up. "Goodnight, Doctor," she breathed, and although he could not see it, the man knew that his Impossible Girl was beaming, the corners of her mouth tugged to its limits.

The Time Lord exhaled. How he wished he too was so content, so carefree and happy. How he wished that he was truly the man who lived this life, so surrounded by love and purpose. But he wasn't, and he would never be. He was a poor substitute, someone who froze in the middle of her caresses, and couldn't even take the small bought of affections that that magnificent woman, teacher, wife, and mother had given him over the past couple of days. "Goodnight, Clara," he whispered back, wondering how he could go back to sleeping without the warmth of her embrace after this fleeting reality ultimately withered away.


End file.
